CCCB unlikely to issue national guidelines on pastoral approach to euthanasia

Alberta and the Northwest Territories did just that in September
By Deborah Gyapong
OTTAWA (CCN)

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops is unlikely to issue national pastoral guidelines on how to accompany Catholics considering euthanasia, the CCCB president said.

“I don’t foresee the CCCB will be putting out guidelines, at least not at this point,” said Bishop Douglas Crosby of Hamilton at the close of the CCCB plenary Sept. 26-30 in Cornwall, Ont. Instead, he sees various regions and dioceses issuing their own pastoral directives. The change in the law is too recent, he said, and many regional bodies have not met yet to consider their response.

Guidelines on access to various sacraments at end of life became an international discussion after the Alberta and Northwest Territories issued pastoral guidelines in September to help guide priests and pastoral workers on when sacraments such as Communion, Anointing of the Sick, and Penance–the so-called Last Rites–can be administered to those contemplating what the Church teaches is a mortal sin. It also deals with whether those who had died by euthanasia or assisted suicide can receive a Catholic funeral.

Mainstream news media have been quick to point out a difference in approach between the Western and the Quebec bishops on the issue. On Sept. 29, Quebec Cardinal Gerald Lacroix posted message on Facebook saying he had no plans for any directive that would mean the refusal of pastoral accompaniment or of the Anointing of the Sick or Catholic funerals for those who sought an assisted death.

Cardinal Lacroix wrote the Church wishes to accompany people at every stage of life and remind them of their unconditional dignity in the eyes of God. “This is why we will opt for palliative care accessible to all rather than euthanasia presented under the name ‘medical aid in dying,'” he wrote in French.

“That the Quebec bishops might differ in some ways is understandable, because they’re too different parts of the country and maybe the reality is different,” Bishop Crosby said. “Also, the laws they deal with would be nuanced as well.” Quebec has its own euthanasia law, slightly different from the federal law.

While the Alberta/NWT bishops’ document also offered many guidelines on pastoral accompaniment, it did spell out when a sacrament must be denied or delayed if a person is persisting in pursuing an assisted death. The Quebec bishops have avoided this approach.

At a news conference from the CCCB plenary Sept. 29 broadcast by Salt and Light TV, CCCB vice president Saint-Jean-Longueuil Bishop Lionel Gendron said the Quebec bishops face circumstances where the Church represented as always being “contrary.” It is also facing a secularized society where euthanasia is viewed positively as a form of mercy.

That’s why the Assembly of Quebec Bishops published a document last December, before the law came into effect, inviting people to reflect on what an assisted death is and to highlight the preferable option of palliative care, Bishop Gendron said.

Bishop Crosby said all the bishops agree on the “vital importance of palliative care” and treating every moment as precious in life, especially “these last moments because it’s such a significant passage.”

The plenary’s biggest event involved reflections on assisted suicide and euthanasia by Cardinal Willem Eijk, Archbishop of Utrecht, who shared the Dutch experience with these realities, and “the pastoral challenges it presents for the priests, deacons and pastoral ministers who are on the front lines, who work with people who are considering these realities, who work with families who are left behind and all of that,” Crosby said.

“The challenge I picked out of this was the slippery slope, how once the door is opened, the law broadens and broadens and we have something that is quite challenging indeed,” he said.

Cardinal Eijk pointed out how often when people do receive good palliative care, their “desire for suicide disappears,” Bishop Crosby said.

The Alberta and Northwest Territories bishops also released guidelines on pastoral accompanied for Catholics who have divorced and remarried in light of Pope Francis’ Post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. Bishop Crosby said he did not envision the CCCB publishing national guidelines in this area either.

“It really isn’t for the Conference to be issuing guidelines, especially when it relates to pastoral practices in the dioceses,” he said. While the CCCB may have a role in educating, and in providing insight into various documents, it does not make “decrees” or “direct.”

“It might happen down the road, but I don’t foresee our doing it,” he said.

The plenary did hear two reflections on Amoris Laetitia by Cardinal Lacroix and Toronto Cardinal Thomas Collins who both attended the synod on the family a year ago.

Crosby said their presentations “pulled out the beauty of the document.”